The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate, has revealed that more than 16000 Nigerian doctors have left the country in the past five to seven years in search of better opportunities abroad.
This mass departure, he said, is a result of various factors including economic opportunities, better working conditions, advanced training, and research environments available in other countries.
Speaking at the seventh annual capacity building workshop of the Association of Medical Councils of Africa (AMCOA) in Abuja on Tuesday, Pate lamented that the migration of healthcare professionals, which also includes nurses and midwives, has further weakened Nigeria’s already fragile healthcare system.
He noted that this mass departure has left hospitals across the country severely understaffed, particularly in rural areas where the need for healthcare is critical.
“In Nigeria alone, over 16,000 doctors are estimated to have left the country in the last five to seven years, with thousands more leaving in just the past few years. Nurses and midwives have also thinned in numbers. The doctor-to-population ratio now stands at around 3.9 per 10,000—well below the suggested global minimum.“
He also pointed out that the cost of training a single doctor in Nigeria exceeds $21,000, making the departure of trained professionals a significant financial loss for the country.
The minister stressed that the mass migration represents not just a loss in manpower but also a loss of public investment.
“But this trend is not just about people leaving. It represents a fiscal loss. The estimated cost of training one doctor exceeds $21,000—a figure that reflects the magnitude of public financing walking out of our countries. It deeply affects our health systems—leaving many of our rural communities critically underserved.”
However, Pate emphasized that this trend of healthcare professionals leaving Nigeria also presents an opportunity for reform.
He called for the development of policies that balance the rights of health workers to seek opportunities abroad with the country’s need to retain a strong, functional health system
“In Nigeria, guided by the vision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who African Heads of State appointed as the AU’s Continental Champion for Human Resources for Health and Community Health Delivery, we are pursuing a new direction. His vision is for Nigeria to become a prosperous, people-oriented country that contributes to a peaceful and thriving continent. Not a standalone Nigeria, but a Nigeria that is interlinked with all our neighbours and sister countries. Under the Renewed Hope Agenda, and within the framework of the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative, we have embraced a new path—combining strategic realism with visionary ambition,” he said.
“The National Policy on Health Workforce Migration is a cornerstone of this path. It is designed to address health workforce migration with dignity—dignity for health workers, for the country, and the profession. It is data-driven, evidence-guided, and signals a clear direction. This is not a restrictive policy, nor is it one born out of resignation. We understand that the global health workforce shortage is at 18 million, and countries in the Global North face their human resource crises due to demographics and other factors. But our response is based on stewardship—balancing the rights of health professionals to seek opportunities abroad with our duty to protect the integrity and viability of our national health system.”
“The objectives are clear – To retain and motivate health workers currently serving in Nigeria—thousands of whom work under difficult conditions; to establish ethical norms and explore bilateral frameworks for recruitment, aiming to correct global asymmetries; to expand training capacity—not only for domestic needs, but to contribute to global workforce needs, to enable structured reintegration for the thousands of Nigerian professionals abroad; and to strengthen governance, improve regulatory coordination, and build real-time data systems.”
Prof. Pate also called for African nations to collaborate in tackling the issue of healthcare workforce mobility.
He urged African leaders to work together on creating a continent-wide framework for training, accreditation, and data management to ensure healthcare professionals who migrate are well-regulated and supported.
During the workshop, the President of AMCOA, Prof. Joel Okullo, emphasized the need for greater cooperation between African countries to improve healthcare services and address challenges related to healthcare workforce management.
The Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), Dr. Fatima Kyari, and the Board Chairperson, Prof. Afolabi Lesi, also spoke at the event.
Dr. Kyari highlighted Nigeria’s successful hosting of its first AMCOA workshop, while Prof. Lesi addressed the challenges healthcare regulators face, particularly the fractured relationships between health professionals that hinder collaboration and compromise patient care.
“The reality is that while we have committed and clear directions at the level of governance, implementation of actions is bedevilled by the fractioned and fractious relationship among health workers who ought to be working as a team, with the patient (well-being and safety) as the primary focus of all our actions,” he said.
